In Britain, Billy Connolly is a national treasure. After breaking through as a stand-up comedian, the hirsute Scottish entertainer has gone on to star in numerous television specials, write bestselling books, make documentaries, record hit albums, and appear in a string of British-made films and television dramas.
Outside the United Kingdom, he is probably best known for his role in the sitcom Head of the Class and his performance opposite Judi Dench in the period film Mrs Brown.
Connolly’s latest Hollywood endeavour is the action adventure Timeline, based on Michael Crichton’s bestselling novel and also starring Paul Walker, Frances O’Connor and Gerard Butler. Connolly plays an eccentric, modern-day archaeologist who accidentally finds himself transported back to the 14th century. He talked to the Mail & Guardian just after his first viewing of the finished film.
So what do you think?
I couldn’t wait until I was off the screen. You know, I don’t like seeing myself from behind. I’ve got a funny feeling you’re not supposed to see that. It’s sort of unnatural.
But what about the bits you’re not in?
I thought the film was great. The pace of it was breathtaking, and I love all the night-time battle scenes with all the flaming arrows and the soldiers and horses. And the time-travel stuff is kind of fun, though don’t ask me to explain it. It’s got something to do with wormholes.
Is it true that the first time you met the director, Richard Donner, you had a purple beard?
Well, before I went to see him I said to my wife, do you think I should undye my beard? He may think I’m a loony. But then I decided to go honestly as me, with the purple beard, because I like the idea that people hire me because they like what I am, rather than what I look like.
You’ve made a lot of low-budget films in Britain. Is making a big Hollywood movie much different?
Once they say “action”, films are pretty much of a muchness. There are close-ups, wide shots, and you try not to overact. Of course, the food is better on some films and the scale of things can be astonishing. On Timeline I arrived the first day and I thought the castle would just be some set, you know, bits of castle to do scenes against. But it was life-sized. They built the entire thing and there were steel girders holding it up. It was phenomenal.
I read that your two daughters were excited that you were making a movie with teen heart-throb Paul Walker.
They melt at the mention of his name. I had to go and ask him for an autograph, which I don’t like to do. But he treated me like a gentleman. He’s a very nice young guy and he’s startlingly good-looking. [Laughs] I fancied him, myself, at one point. I mean, I can see what they like. He’s like Tom Cruise.
Who you also just worked with.
Yeah, in The Last Samurai. He was an absolute delight, and a very, very hard-working guy.
And what about your role in The Last Samurai?
I die on page 39. I do that quite a lot. In White Oleander I barely make it to the screen before I die. I even died in a Muppet movie, for Christ’s sake [Muppet Treasure Island]. I like dying scenes better than sex scenes. All that grinding around and people licking each other — not for me.
Do you do much preparation or research for a role?
I learn the lines and I try to imagine what the guy was like and then I get on with it. Some guys live it and they have the same accent for the whole movie, and won’t talk to anybody, and I’m sure they’re brilliant. Daniel Day-Lewis does that and the man is awfully good, but that’s not what I do.
Your credits go on for pages. You never seem to stop working.
I come from a working-class background where you go to work and that’s what you do, that’s your function. So I used to find that time off was kind of heavy on my hands. But in the past 10 years I’ve turned the thing around and I fish and I sail and stuff. It used to be that my life kind of helped my career along, but now my job finances my life.
But you still work a lot?
Well, I’m still glad about the work, especially the film parts. It’s not a bad way to spend your day, running around pretending to be someone else.
Timeline opens at cinemas on March 26